Canada warned on Tuesday it would ratchet up pressure on Iran over the killing of a jailed Iranian-Canadian photographer, and called on Tehran to respect international human rights norms.
But Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew's promise of action fell far short of measures demanded by the press, his opposition counterpart and the family of Zahra Kazemi, who died while in Iranian custody last year.
The issue exploded into a new diplomatic row after a security agent was acquitted in Iran on Saturday of the photographer's murder.
"We are going to work with our partners across the world, in the European Union and in the United Nations to increase the pressure on Iran," Pettigrew told reporters in Montreal.
"Iran must accept its responsibilities in line with its own laws, but also in line with the UN Declaration of Human Rights," Pettigrew said in his first public comments on the issue since Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, 42, was acquitted.
Kazemi, 54, a freelance photographer with dual nationality, died in July last year from a brain hemorrhage from a blow to her skull after her arrest for taking photos outside Tehran's notorious Evin prison. The judiciary initially claimed Kazemi died of a stroke, but a government report later revealed she had been struck by a blunt object. Her mother says Kazemi's body showed evidence of torture in several places, including broken bones.
Kazemi's family has demanded justice, and charged the Canadian government with doing little to call Tehran to account.
"I'm questioning myself on the honest intention of the Canadian government," Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, said on Tuesday. "It's a shame."
The chief Conservative Party spokesman for foreign affairs, Stockwell Day, accused Pettigrew of "failing to take immediate and decisive action."
Three UN human rights experts earlier on Tuesday said they were profoundly concerned at the acquittal verdict. The UN special rapporteurs on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, on the independence of judges and lawyers, and on torture expressed "their profound concern regarding the unanswered questions which have resulted from the acquittal of an Iranian intelligence officer on 24 July after a two-day trial."
The experts, Ambeyi Ligabo, Leandro Despouy and Theo van Boven respectively, said in a statement that Iranian "authorities are favoring a climate of impunity for law enforcement officials and setting the ground for the recurrence of similar human rights violations in the future."
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS